Suzanne F

Didn't he win a Beard award for wine writing? (disclosure: he was sort of my boss too, years ago, but he really does know his stuff.) I'm rather partial to Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible, which came out about a year ago. Readable, highly informative, accessible ("If chardonnay is Marilyn Monroe, sauvignon blanc is Jamie Lee Curtis." "...California pinot noirs are fairly dependable, especially in comparison to Burgundies, which are the vinous equivalents of manic-depressives [very high quality or very low; not much stuff in the middle].")

There's a tiny sandwich place near me (La Casse-Croute. in lower Manhattan) that uses their breads, and also sells some retail.

Lyle, be warned: you have started down a path from which there is no return. Once you start cooking Indian food at home, you will not want to cook anything else. Except maybe Italian, or French, or Chinese, or Japanese, or Thai, or BBQ, or ... or any other ethnic cuisine you have eaten but not yet cooked. No, seriously, "Indian" food, with all the regional splendors, is fabulous to cook at home. Have fun!!!

Will be spending a weekend in DC in early December. Any new places worth trying?

Thanks so much for the report. Sounds like whatever we order when we go for Paul's birthday, we're in for a treat.

A bastardized version of the Gnocchi Verde in Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook (the original first one): non-fat cottage cheese instead of ricotta, and turkey baloney instead of mortadella. You know what, they were still pretty damn good. Of course, baking them with crème fraiche and cheese helped a lot. Romaine, endive, radicchio, and parsley salad with lemon thyme vinaigrette. Schneider Chardonnay 1999, North Fork Long Island

Great review, THANKS! Interesting that the service we had at ADNY was much better -- they were very good about explaining each dish.

Oh, Tommy, they're beautiful ... especially that great big fat Allen wrench.

So do lengthwise slices of zucchini; but it helps to salt them first to get out some of the water. And I'll bet slices of winter squash would be pretty good, too. But then, can you really call it lasagna? That's the noodle. So like "pineapple carpaccio" you'd have to put it in quotes as "lasagne" di zucchine.

I mostly agree, now that I've looked at it again. EXCEPT: it has a rolled edge, so stacks yes, cuts no. Oh dear, stacks are so passé (unless you're still Alfred Portale).

Saffy, in the Lavender thread you mentioned Dukkah. Ground toasted hazelnuts, peppercorns, thyme, and salt. Has anyone tried adding some sumac?

Yeah, but that seems kind of post hoc ergo propter hoc to me. Not a definition, but a general description of what has come to be seen as such. Fwiw, Fernand Point seems to use the term grande cuisine for his cooking.

Don't really know set times for garlic keeping. BUT: if you get green shoots coming out of the ends of the cloves, you've kept it too long. And like so many other items that "breathe" in storage, garlic keeps better with some exposure to air. That's why the terra cotta thing works well. If you keep it sealed in a plastic bag, the moisture will build up and mold will grow.

Shameful, n'est-ce pas? But then "beef carpaccio" was a made-up name anyway, not a classic presentation, so it should be fair game for redefinition.

I've been trying to look objectively at the original question (silly me). Interestingly enough, I haven't been able to find a definition of the phrase haute cuisine -- not even in Patric Kuh's book, The Last Days of Haute Cuisine. Nor in either English translations of Larousse Gastonomique. The only somewhat consistent references -- still without definitions -- are in works by or about Escoffier. In Escoffier's autobiography, he describes the Café-Restaurant du Casino in Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he was chef de cuisine as Immediately following, he mentions meeting César Ritz: Sometime later, he mentions the Prince of Wales as loving French food, "whether it was Parisian-style haute cuisine or ...."Finally, after a trip to the United States, upon his return to work at the Carlton Hotel in London: So much for Escoffier himself. H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufman, translators of the fourth (and final) edition of Escoffier's Guide Culinaire, say in their Translators' Preface: It would seem then that haute cuisine is a Parisian style of cooking as defined and practiced by Auguste Escoffier, and continued by his spiritual and practical descendants. What does that do with all the subjective comments made here??

Both are "French knives" aka Chef knives: 16 is of French manufacture, maybe Sabatier? 17 is German. The difference is (obviously) in the curvature of the blades. Both will chop anything you want; I prefer German design for the easier rocking motion. Stones: coarse, medium, and fine? This guy must REALLY care about his edges! As for the sieves, my guess is that he doesn't feel the need to carry any because 1. they're bulky; 2. most likely, wherever he's going will have one; 3. you can get along without one: you can drain pots without one, and you can improvise a strainer for liquids with a cloth napkin. The one item I can't figure out is #26 -- looks like an IUD And of course #1 is THE most important: the opener for the post-service beer.

If "sommaq" = "sumac" then that's the Syrian kind of zaatar: the red stuff. Great sprinkled over yogurt for a dip, as well as what everyone has already suggested. Very tart and tangy. There's also green Jordanian zaatar, which is wild marjoram mixed with sesame seeds (and maybe some other herbs). This is what I've seen more often baked onto pita. Anyway, these are the distinctions that Sahadi and other middle-eastern food stores in Brooklyn make.

Do you truly believe that a cook can be entirely "self-taught?" No cookery school, fine. No previous professional kitchen experience, fine. But no reading? No eating the cooking of others? No chat with farmers, fishers, and/or other purveyors? No influence of the label on the cookware in the store? The eternal verities of technique, and the ability to taste basic flavors, may well be instinctive; but what of everything else? Are these not somehow absorbed from elsewhere (i.e., "learned")?

This ignorant country hick has found himself in the wrong thread. Who's Nina W. ? Sorry, Nick. I was being "exclusionary," that old eGullet bugagoo. Maybe because you fit right in so well, I forgot that you're fairly new and may have missed the discussions. Ignorant, my foot. Nina Wugmeister, one of the members here, has very strong opinions of what does and does not constitute proper dining-out attire. There's been at least one thread on it. Again, mea culpa. But now we know you're a "t-shirt-and-jeans" kiind of guy. (Not flannel shirt? or is that only in deepest winter?)

Not if Nina W. is going to be there, too.

Snowangel is definitely onto something here. TEXTURE. Cold (or if you prefer, not-hot) meat usually has a firmer texture. So you have to chew it a bit more, which increases saliva flow etc. etc. Cold from the fridge is even firmer and requires even more chewing, more internal juice flow, and so on. But that's just my experience.

In Savoie and the French Alps, you have haute cuisine; in the Italian Alps, it's alta cucina. At sea-level, it depends on what storey of the house it's on.

Just straight, chilled: as a dessert wine.

Isn't that the late Alice Trillin's method of accounting? And what the hell, I may be cheap, but I ain't easy.

The "5-spice" we made at Match (Gary Robins) had 7 components: Star anise, fennel seed, cinnamon, coriander, black peppercorns, allspice, and cloves. If you buy pre-made, Vann's is pretty good, but quite different: ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, pepper, thyme, and star anise.